great job. >> good to see. follow me on facebook and twitter and instagram at jake tapper and tweet the show at "the lead," our coverage continues right now. thank you so much for watching. happening now, breaking news, defense of the deal. labor secretary alex acosta defends the secret 2008 plea deal he arranged as a u.s. attorney which made multi-millionaire jeffrey epstein an sentence for sex crimes. president trump pushed him before the cameras but could he still push him out the door. call to resign, nancy pelosi adds her powerful voice to those calling on alex acosta to resign adding that president trump should ask him to step down. now mueller, house democrats are preparing for next week's testimony by former special counsel robert mueller. but while the hearings are seen as a possible make or break moment for impeachment advocates, some democrats are already tamping down

expectations. and ambassador quits. britain ambassador to the united states resigns after leaked diplomatic cables show he called president trump insecure and incompetent triggering a series of insults from the president. i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. breaking news, embattled labor secretary alex acosta goes public to defend the still shocking plea deal he oversaw as a u.s. attorney a decade ago. which gave multi-millionaire jeffrey epstein a light sentence for sex crimes involving underage girls. acosta said his office stepped in when state prosecutors were ready to let epstein walk. epstein faces new federal charges for allegedly running a sex trafficking ring and abusing minors. sources say president trump told acosta to step forward amid a

drum beat of calls for his resignation. and house democrats are scrambling to get ready for the testimony of robert mueller. they're trying to make the most of limited time but some are already cautioning against expecting too much from the hearings. the testimony is seen as a make or break moment for democrats pushing for an impeachment inquiry. i'll speak with senator james langford of the senate homeland security committee. and our correspondents and analysts will have full coverage of the day's top stories. but let's begin with the breaking news. our chief white house constituent jim acosta standing by. the president's embattled labor secretary is defending his actions as a u.s. attorney a decade ago. >> reporter: in an update, so far officials here at the white house believe labor secretary alex acosta handled himself well at the press conference this afternoon as we saw as he came out in front of the cameras, there were no apologies or regretted from the embattled labor secretary regarding his handling of the jeffrey epstein case and secretary acosta

claimed he still has the support of the president even though mr. trump hasn't always stood by cabinet secretaries facing intense scrutiny in the past. under fire over a plea deal he once cut for multi-millionaire sex offender jeffrey epstein, alex acosta defended the handling of the case as a prosecutor. >> no regrets is a hard question. you look back and say what if. >> reporter: with you in victims coming forward questioning whether acosta was too lenient in the case, the secretary was asked whether he would have reached the same agreement today. time and again he pointed the finger at state prosecutors in florida claiming they were going to allow epstein to avoid jail time. >> today's world treats victims very, very differently. today's world does not allow some of the victim shaming that could have taken place at trial. i don't think we can say take a case that is this old and fully know how it would play out today. we did what we did because we

wanted to see epstein go to jail. there is a value to a guilty plea because letting him walk, letting what the state attorney was ready to do go forward would have been absolutely awful. >> reporter: the secretary made it clear he's not about to resign, talking up his relationship with president trump while working in a plug for the administration's record. >> my relationship with the president is outstanding. he has, i think, very publicly made clear that i've got his support. i serve at the pleasure of the president. i thought yesterday he was kind and he showed great support. we are here because we are part of an administration that is creating jobs -- >> reporter: senior administration official told officials president trump was first to fight back against democrats calling for the

resignation and president trump's attitude was screw them and blasted reports he's on thin ice with mick mulvaney. >> our relationship is excellent too in that any articles to the contrary are in his words b.s. >> reporter: in true trump administration fashion the secretary took a swipe at the media. >> i've read this and one of the things i find interesting is how facts become facts because they're in a newspaper -- thank you very much. >> reporter: and the question is whether the secretary's performance was enough to stay on. one of mr. trump's close friends was betting that his days were numbered. >> i think the plea agreement he did is indefensible. i think that he's not going to stay for long. >> reporter: but for now it seems secretary acosta may be able to stay on for now. but the secretary may want to look back at how other embattled cabinet members have fared in the past and as one senior official put it one day you're working for president trump and one day you are not.

and there was one other departure as the british ambassador to the u.s. announced he is stepping down after some of his past criticisms of mr. trump surfaced in the news media and one top white house official told reporters that is the right course of action. that is one departure over here at the white house they were welcoming. >> jim acosta at the white house. thank you very much. let's dig deeper. kara scannell is here in "the situation room." you've been going through the legal documents around this 2007 and 2008 case. what did you find out. >> so in combing through the record in this case and we found a number of letters between 2007 and 2008 just after this non-prosecution agreement was reached where lawyers for jeffrey epstein were reached out to alex acosta still trying to get him to knock two of the prosecutors off the case and to end the prosecution completely. when that failed, epstein legal team brought in ken starr, the lawyer who prosecuted or went after bill clinton in the whitewater investigation and monica lewinsky and had him

apeep to the department of justice in washington and reached out to the criminal division and the child exploitation division and the deputy attorney general and in one claim they said the prosecution of epstein was politically motivated because of his, quote, close personal association with former president bill clinton. now the deputy attorney general office, one of the assistants there had responded saying that the prosecution was, quote, appropriate. now remember, this prosecution wasn't even one that was ever really supposed to be made public. it involved no jail time, and no actual federal charges. >> interesting. because when alex acosta, the labor secretary, was asked today to look back at his handling of the case, and i want to be reseiss, he didn't appear to accept direct responsibility. in fact he repeatedly pointed to others. >> right. he pointed to both the state prosecutors on the case and then he even was passing some of the blame on to his line assistants mentioning specifically one of them and the conduct and actions that she had taken in this case.

now that runs counter to the record. you see in the court filings that acosta was involved. that he did have meetings with one of his former law partner who is representing jeffrey epstein and that also runs counter to the other cases that acosta's office brought during that exact same time period with a prosecution of people for one person -- one victim that they had assaulted, not the alleged dozens of victims in this case. >> cara spinel, thank you very much. and let's go to our correspondent manu raju up on capitol hill. you just spoke with the house speaker nancy pelosi. what did she have to say about secretary acosta's news conference? >> reporter: well, nancy pelosi had been very clear she wants nothing short of alex acosta's resignation as labor secretary and said in the aftermath of the indictment she made that clear in the days that have followed and as she was leaving a briefing this afternoon i asked her about the press conference

and acosta making it clear he was not resigning and she said this -- >> he should resign or the president should ask him to step down. >> reporter: so the question is what do democrats do from here? nancy pelosi made clear to me yesterday that she didn't really have much of an interest of launching a full scale investigation into this plea deal offered back in florida to jeffrey epstein. she said that they want to focus on the legislative agenda instead. but there are interests from one house oversight committee who who sent a letter to alex acosta asking him to testify this month to lay out the details of the plea agreement. no word yet about whether or not acosta will come and whether or not it will lead to a subpoena from the house oversight committee. so there is still some interest on capitol hill to get some more answers to what -- what has happened here and whether acosta properly moved forward with that plea agreement more than a decade ago, wolf.

>> manu, what are you learning about the democrat's strategy for next week's robert mueller testimony? >> reporter: well, behind the scenes, democrats are scrambling to make sure that they get the most out of their time. they have only two hours and two separate hearings and that is split equally between democrats and republicans so for the house judiciary committee with more than 40 members, each side will have one hour only to ask questions of robert mueller. then the house intelligence committee will have a similar two-hour arrangement split equally between the two sides and so democrats are trying to figure out a strategy to get the answers they want to their questions. they're beginning meetings tonight, tomorrow as well to figure out exactly what they want to ask to divide up the -- among the members and effectively stick to the script but what i'm hearing from democrats is they are concerned that just two hours isn't enough time to get exactly what they want, which is more information to get the special counsel detail all of the allegations in a more than 400-page report and

already democrats are saying that, look, we may need him to come back because that is just simply not going to be enough time. so right now democratic leaders are sorting out logistics to divide up how to ask the questions but you're hearing questions as the whole world is watching and people are saying this contains a dynamic that could lead to an impeachment of this president, but some saying there is not enough time to get all of their questions answered so at the moment, wolf, democrats are trying to figure out exactly how to maximize the limited time with the special counsel. >> given the time, the democrats and the republicans for that matter, they have to be disciplined and ask questions rather than make speeches, which they often like to do in these kind of hearings. manu raju on capitol hill, thank you very much. joining us now republican senator james langford of oklahoma, a key member of the homeland security committee. senator, thanks so much for joining us. >> good to be with you, wolf. >> so we have a lot to discuss but let me begin with the breaking news. should the labor secretary alex acosta resign over his handling

of the epstein case? no -- >> no, i don't think he should resign. i think we should allow the investigation and background work on this and what i'm disappointed is the coverage in the last 48 hours on every network is about president trump and acosta as labor secretary and not spent time talking about the girls that were abused in the process and trafficked and about epstein and what the horrific acts that he did. so this is a hoffic crime. when you keep the focus on it being a horrific crime and let the department of justice do the investigation, in the second investigation and what happened in florida a decade ago and now in new york to finish this out with new additional witnesses, let that go and let's get this person prosecuted and get justice to folks and then allow that investigation to go forward and review what happened ten years ago. i -- i think it is appropriate and the focus needed to be on the kid lz and getting justice to them. >> the girls were 14, 15 years old. you make a very important point. >> horrific.

>> and they were clearly abuse and that raises the question why did alex acosta in south florida give this lenient plea deal with epstein? >> yep, and i think those are all lodge itd matt questions to ask him and i that i the department of justice will pull that up and when they are retrying the issues and bringing up additional people with additional witnesses to go back and find out what did the state of florida do and why are they trugling to prosecute the case and how did it end up in the u.s. attorney's office and how was the plea deal made and reasonable questions and those answers should come out. >> because a federal judge as you know said alex acosta violated the law by not telling epstein's victims about the prosecution agreement that was worked out, the plea agreement that the government signed on to. doesn't that alone warrant an apology from alex acosta? >> yeah, let's get all of the details out on that and find out from acosta, again he has to go back and review this with the department of justice and make it right in any way we can. my impression is a lot of the

push right now is because he's a trump cabinet member and not because of the case. my focus would be let's focus on the -- on him as an attorney and u.s. attorney and find out what mistakes were made and how do we never do this again and make sure there aren't other individuals in other places that we had a prosecution not fully fulfilled. >> you make an important point. these were 14 and 15, 16-year-old girls who were abused in awful ways. -- would you like to see secretary acosta come before congress so you could directly ask him questions about the decisions he made a decade ago? >> so i would like to see the same way we could do with any other u.s. attorney, let the department of justice go through the process and do the investigation behind closed doors as they would for any other u.s. attorney to be able to get the hard questions, a deposition or a closed-door meeting will get much more out tv than a hearing. the only reason is a hearing is being discussed because he's trump's secretary of labor and if there was any other attorney

we would be going through normal protocol. so i would ask that we go through normal protocol first and then if we dent -- don't get good answers then go forward. >> and was he properly vetted in the hearings by the senate and you voted to confirm and eight democrats opposed it and one indeed angus king of maine -- eight democrats supported his confirmation. one independent angus king also supported his confirmation. was he properly vetted, only senator tim kaine of virginia asked questions about the epstein case. >> i was about to say yes. that information was available and people could see it and tim kaine was able to ask information of him personally and so the white house had looked at it and democrats and republicans in the senate looked at it and the questions that were asked and everybody thought they had sufficient answers through the process and now we have additional information, additional witnesses that are coming forward. now that allows for a renewed prosecution in that case which is a good thing for the victims to be able to go through. >> let's talk about the robert

mueller upcoming testimony next week. one of mueller's definitive conclusions at the beginning of the 450 page report was that the russians directly interfered in our 2016 presidential election. but in a briefing today up on capitol hill, top administration officials wouldn't even say whether president trump has even received a comprehensive briefing on election security looking forward to 2020. i know you were at a sensitive briefing on this issue today as well. does that worry you? >> no. that doesn't -- worry me because i was in the head of the fbi and office of national intelligence and department of homeland security and multiple leaders in our government to get an update of what they're already doing to protect our elections for 2020 and what they did for 2018. lessons learned from 2016 and 2018 and what they are applying for 2020 and so they are a long way down the road. they were very clear they've had interaction with the president and the white house and had a go on all of the work behind the scenes to be able to make sure

that they're working with individual states and all 50 states have an additional cyber protection on the election system that was not there four years ago so dealing with cybersecurity is much more advanced now than it was four years ago and a lot more awareness and interaction state to state and interaction agency to agency. so our questions were focused -- foc focused on 2020 and behind the scenes and i'm impressed with what has been done and what they did in 2018 and which we saw go off without a hitch in 2018 because of the aggressive measures they took. >> you make a very important point, senator, because all of the top national security intelligence, cybersecurity people in the administration, in the government, they are all on the same page, they have to do something very, very serious to stop the russians and they talk about it openly, they have no complaints about what the mueller report came up with on that specific issue. but why do we never hear the president of the united states speak about this? >> you would have to ask him on

that one or his spokesperson on it. my perception is he feels like will are folks out there saying the only reason he is president is because the russians were trying to interfere. woe vehemently push back and say he worked hard in the campaign and got more votes and all of that process. so i think -- his perception is what i get from him is there is a sense that some people are trying too delegitimize his position and we've been consistent with our intelligence folks and we need to be vigilant to make sure we continue to protect the mem -- so people can trust the system. >> we have to go. you have no doubt the russians interfered. >> i have no doubt they tried to interfere. they started as early as 2014 and i have no question they did that or our government is standing up ready to take them on for 2020 and push back now. >> and you have no doubt thein tection was to help donald trump get electioned. >> i have a lot of doubts on that. the christopher steele, the

famous dossier, i have no doubt that was russian generated as information that was counter to trump. so there is a lot of things that were helpful to the president and there were a lot of things hurtful to the president that were out there so the russians were playing both sides of this trying to be able to create a stir as they went through the election which they've been successful at. >> they conclude the russians want to sow political dissent and that is the goal to start this but in the end they really went out of the way to try to help trump and hurt hillary clinton. >> they did more to help candidate trump, no question than they did hillary clinton but they also had information going the other direction. they also had pro-bernie sanders and green party things out there. and when you go back and see a break down of the things on social media, by far they were doing more anti-hillary clinton but they had other information including as i mentioned the famous dossier that is a russian document that was anti-candidate trump in the open so there was

quite a bit on both sides. >> we'll continue this conversation down the road. thank you for joining us. up next alex acosta rejects calls that he resigned defending the 2008 plea deal as a u.s. attorney which give multi-millionaire jeffrey epstein a light sentence for sex crimes. plus a hurricane watch issued for part of the louisiana coast right now and heavy rains are already causing serious problems along the central gulf coast. stand by for the latest. don't miss your golden opportunity to experience thrilling performance. now, at the lexus golden opportunity sales event. get 0.9% apr for 60 months on all 2019 models. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

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breaking news, the labor secretary alex acosta this afternoon defended his actions when as a federal prosecutor he negotiated a plea deal with sex offender jeffrey epstein a decade ago. acosta said he has no intention of resigning. let's bring in our experts, our constituents and analysts to assess. and kaitlan, you were there at that news conference at the department of labor earlier today. and you've done some serious reporting on the pressure behind the scenes from the president on alex acosta to do something. tell us about that. >> president trump was the reason he came out today and did answer the questions from reporters because they got on the phone yesterday and the president told him he needed to defend himself and do so in a

press conference, maybe taking questions because he wanted him to go out there and defend his actions as he oversaw the plea deal. we reported last night the president had been privately telling people he had confidence in secretary acosta making the same argument he did in the oval office yesterday, downplaying his role in the deal, saying there were multiple people involved and stating that it was 11 years ago. with the the president was saying it was a long time ago. so that is why he wanted him to come out and forcefully defend himself and a lot of people in the west wing were saying this performance was really going to determine whether or not he stayed on as the labor secretary. >> it is interesting because during that news conference, susan, the labor secretary repeatedly sought to deflect and blaming others, the ta -- the s florida or career prosecutors. he didn't take responsibility. >> he was ready to throw everybody under the bus, intimating the state would pursue lesser charges and the blame lay with prosecutors but this is not a deal that happened to occur at the u.s. attorney's

office while acosta happened to be the boss. acosta personally met with epstein's lawyer not at the attorney's office but in a miami hotel which goes to how incredibly irregular this was. at that breakfast meeting they hashed out this deal by which epstein served only 13 months in prison and is a -- and allowed to come and go at will and immunize unnamed co-conspirators. >> he said the breakfast meeting with the lawyers was done after the plea deal had already been worked out. >> well, the "miami herald" reporting contradicts that and i do think that one thing -- acosta deserves credit for answering an hours worth of questions today, he was not forthcoming on whether or not he fully informed the victims, he was evasive on the key details. so it is hard to say whether or not his account of the story is credible at this point.

>> he said we didn't inform the victims because we were afraid if they knew about money that might be coming to them that it could be used against them by epstein's attorneys. it seems to me they were kind of bludgeoned by epstein's lawyers -- >> and he some famous lawyers, epstein. some high-powered lawyers. >> he certainly did, one of them a former law partner of acosta. but acosta, as susan was saying, was blaming everybody else for this and saying that arrangement was b.s. and he shouldn't have been allowed to go to work while he was serving his jail time and who did that, and he didn't really say what new evidence there is that he was praising the southern district of new york for finding, what is there new about this? there were 36 victims at the time. wasn't that enough? and also in this question of immunizing potential co-conspirators, he didn't

really explain why that occurred, did he? i'm not a lawyer. >> is he too much of a liability now for the president? >> that is a thing, we never know with the president. we've seen this over and over again with people who work for the president either in the cabinet or in the white house, there is a lot of scrutiny, a lot of damaging scrutiny and damning evidence against them in terms of wrongdoing or in this case sort of i think what i thought was a bit of a pompous and weak performance by acosta and seeming to sort of go along with the -- by epstein's lawyer and we've seen this play out. it is up to the president ultimately. we don't know if at some point he changes his mind. we do know his instinct is to fight and draw a line between folks who want to see folks in his administration go, folks who want to take him down, folks who want to take people who work with him down and so he tends to kind of defend them at all costs. we've seen that over and over again. we'll see if that press conference makes a difference. i thought it was a terrible press conference.

the sort of blaming, the timing of it, saying, oh, this was a very, very long time ago. it was only 11 years ago. and these victims would have been treated differently than now. i thought it was a terrible performance. >> stand by. there is a lot more we need to discuss. we'll take a quick break and be right back. its show of strength or its sign of intelligence? in crossing harsh terrain or breaking new ground? this is the time to get an exceptional offer on the mercedes of your midsummer dreams at the mercedes-benz summer event, going on now. lease the gla 250 suv for just $329 a month at the mercedes-benz summer event. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago.

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mueller testimony next week. and nancy pelosi met with the democratic caucus in the house of representatives today, she pleaded for unity at one point saying, quote, you got a complaint, you come and talk to me about it, but do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just okay. clearly there is a rift emerging between her and some of the more liberal younger members emerging. >> i don't blame her, quite frankly. she's a leader of the party in the house and what she is saying is not that you can't complain. sure, complain. but how about coming to me so i don't have to read it on twitter first. and i think she's -- she put out the word there, look, you don't have to stand in line behind me all of the time. but we have to have a united front because we're dealing with hugely important issues and this comes on the heels of her saying to maureen doubt in "the new york times," they have four votes and she was also right about that. they have four votes.

and so i think she's kind of saying to them, i'm not going to roll over for you and you need to understand where i'm coming from. and how important these issues are and so, yeah, there is a rift in the democratic party. >> that was a low blow i thought for nancy pelosi to go and talk to maureen dowd in this piece in "the new york times" and sort of trash the younger members who do have a following and do have a perspective and it is not just all on twitter. it is an entire wing of the democratic party. so for her i think to come and say oh, with you should make nice, well nancy pelosi, you were trashing them in the pages of the "new york times" very publicly. >> she was -- there is a serious rift that has emerged. house the white house viewing this. >> with glee. they love division with the democratic party that is -- part of it saying the president should be impeached and the other had a half is is conducting widespread investigation news the president and then there are over two dozen-ish, around that, running against donald trump and hoping

to beat him in the presidential election so think kind of division between a party that is center left and more way to the left that is something the white house and the trump campaign wants to see and exploit over the next year and a half as they try to make the argument for why trump should be re-elected. >> nance has been a minority leader and speaker of the house. she wants to stay on as speaker. she wants the democrats after the next election to maintain the majority and not go back to the minority. >> and she recognizes that any internal division among the democrats will help trump get re-elected and that is what she's up again and these tweets from younger members might be popular on social media and with one wing of the party but at the end of the day they don't help to advance the progressive agenda and they don't get bills drafted or passes and people have to decide whether or not they are playing a team sport here because if they are divided, they are not going to unseat an incumbent president. >> she has 30 moderates and -- she has to worry about who were

elected in trump districts and she's kind of given them a master class here on how this place works. and saying to them, i want to remain -- in not so many words, i need to remain speaker of the house and you are not helping us and figure out what side you are on and saying, sometimes you need to compromise, dirty word, and you may have to learn that just like she had to learn it when she had to compromise herself. >> but that said, she's also not just resisting this far left wing, pelosi is resisting major calls for impeachment, calls for basic oversight into things like alex acosta and finding herself further from the progressive wing and the centrists. >> the consequences are enormous in this feud. stick around. more breaking news. a hurricane watch has just been issued for part of the louisiana coast. we have the latest forecast. all money managers might seem the same, but some give their clients cookie cutter portfolios.

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breaking news, a hurricane watch has just been issued for parts of the louisiana coast ahead of the storm that isn't even fully formed yet. let's go to our meteorologist tom sater. what is happening in the gulf of mexico? >> wolf, we don't even have a tropical depression but this came from energy inland and drifted south into the gulf of mexico. hurricane season started on june 1st and this could be a hurricane as we look at the weekend. the first landfall during the

month of july in the gulf since 2008 and that was bonnie -- or dolly that moved into texas. tropical storm watch from the pearl river to the mouth of the mississippi. in peak is a hurricane watch from the mouth of the mississippi across all of the way over toward cameron, louisiana. there is uncertainty of where this will make landfall but there are a couple of things we know for sure. a precursor today, tremendous amounts of rainfall, two tornado watches, a flash flood emergency, with over 250 emergency calls today, as the system brushed through the area. the river system can't take any more right now. just to give you an idea, the broad circulation is still well off to the west. in the next 24 hours, we could have a named storm barry and then as it makes its way through the bath water -- this is like a hot tub in the gulf, warmer than it should be, we're expecting intensification to get to category one but it doesn't matter the category, this is all about the rain. we had 9.42 inches, this is a

one in 50-year event following the one in 100-year event you had in d.c. but it is about the warnings. had hurricane katrina made landfall, the lea-- the leave e over three feet and it is at 16 and expected to go to 20. the record is 21. this could be the highest level at this levee and it is right at the top of the system. this is a real test on this system as we watch this system move if for the weekend but it is all about 10, 15, maybe 10 inches of rain to come. >> next month it will be 14 years since hurricane katrina hit that louisiana area. tom sater, will stale -- will stay on top of this development. coming up, a marine threatened by north korea and could kim jong-un's hit men

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kim jong-un's regime may be planning to make a move against an american leading a stunning raid on a north korean embassy. >> we have new information from the attorney of an american man involved in the raid in spain and from court documents. they confirm north koreans have put a target on this man's back.

even if they're in the u.s., spain or elsewhere, neither he nor one of his cohorts are safe from the long arm of kim jong-un's intelligence. tonight new indications that naek's dictator could be targeting his adversaries who are americans for assassination. they're called the provisional government. the goal is to overthrow kim jong-un's regime. one of their members, former u.s. marine christopher ahn, has just been granted bail by a judge in l.a. and should be under house detention within days. he and other members of the group are accused of leading a broad daylight raid on madrid in february making away with thumb drives, hard drives, computers and cell phones. he was arrested in l.a. in april and spain wants the u.s. to extradite him there. his lawyer tells cnn, she's fighting that. >> there are people on the

ground connected to the north korean government of the they can reach out to people in spain if they want to commit a crime or harm somebody. >> the judge in ahn's case backs her up writing in an order the fbi has confirmed that the north korean government has threatened his life. he is apparently the target of a dictatorship's efforts to murder him. she fears he would be in danger even if incarcerate in spain. >> the officials there are probably in touch with people in the underworld, in spain. people who would have no problem finding their way into a spanish jail if mr. ahn would be detained there. >> his lawyer is concerned that the agents could even get to him while he's in the u.s.ful one former spy says north korea could well have a net work of operatives in the last area and they wouldn't blink at targeting ahn there. >> they wouldn't hesitate on kill someone in the united states. it is a vicious regime. >> christopher ahn is not the

only leader of the group who is apparently in danger tonight. the american adrian long, accused of being, is on the run from u.s. marshals and his lawyer says, north korean agents. >> we know from credible sources that the north korean government has, is seeking adrian hong and some of his associates from the provisional government of the group and is seeking to target them for assassination. u.s. authorities raided the apartment in april but he was not there. they deny spain's accusations that they beat and tied up north korean officials during the embassy raid in february. still, analysts say he must be enraged. >> to have someone enter the embassy, it is seen as quite an insult and quite a criticism. so he would take personally. it would be seen as a personal

affront of the regime. so he would want to lash out tonight they are critical of the justice department saying that it is dismaying that the department has executed warrants against americans based on the accounts of north korean officials in spain. the attorneys tell cnn, they're worried that ahn and hong if he is ever caught, could be extradited to north korea if they're not harmed first. they say anyone extradited spain will get just law procedure. coming up, alex acosta rejects calls to resign, defending the plea deal he arranged. will president trump stand by him? wednesdays. at outback, they're for steak and beer.

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epstein, refusing to resign and blaming state prosecutors even as new victims come forward. was the news conference enough for him to keep his job? make or break moment. house democrats hunker down many intense preparation for next week's testimony by robert mueller. fearing his high profile appearance won't have the impact they've been seeking and will shift public opinion against president trump. tonight new details of the strategy to get it right. aoc. the presidential candidate kamala harris tries boost her progressive credentials by tying her name to alexandria ocasio cortez. but she is competing with bernie sanders and elizabeth warren who are also courting the star of the liberal left. which candidate will win her endorsement? and hurricane watch. alerts go up as water inundates new orleans with a storm closing in. gaining strength a